Bought a new digital camera and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have Photoshop 4.01, but its a real resource pig with a steep learning curve. For under $80, Elements 2.0 has 90% of the functionality and appears to be easier to use. I am also impressed with the difference between PhotoShop 4.01 and Elements 2.0 - Elements has online tutorials, web links to download 'recipes' (pre-configured procedures for performing certain operations) and configuration of the package to suit the way you work. It will take me quite a while to master this package, but I was also up and running pretty quickly.



Elements is also a resource hog - my current workstation is an 850 MHz Duron with 512 Meg of RAM and a fast 7200 ATA-100 drive. Performance tips include having a second hard drive for temp workspace, gobs of memory and a CPU that you can use as a secondary heat source for your home or office.

I didn't realize how busy I must have been. We will see how long this goes or whether I will make this page my home page.

went to Best Buy today for some last minute shopping. It was great. The parking lot was very, very crowded, but inside (99% guys - go figure), the store was not that crowded, the sales people were helpful (!) and they created a single queue for the registers with a guy directing shoppers to the next available register. The guy in front of me in line said the line was 5x longer last night. I don't suspect it will remain this organized through the day, but it really put me in the Christmas spirit.